There are several ways to evaluate where your ads budget should go between Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Here’s what to think about and calculate.
The truth of it all is that they are both better depending on factors such as your budget, objective and also product or service landscape.
Factors to consider before going for Facebook or Google Ads
Digital Advertising Budget & Acquisition Costs.
Before you spend any money, get very clear on your numbers.
Understand what you can afford to pay to gain a customer. If you don’t know this, you’ll spend a lot of money on any platform with no direction.
If you can afford to spend N1000 to acquire a customer, but you’re spending N500 to get someone to your website, that means you have to convert half your visits just to break even!.
Take a look at your full budget, and work from highest intent backward: maximize your retargeting first, and then move the leftover funds into higher in the funnel.
This will make sure you’re getting the best return possible, and then reinvesting further back in the customer journey.
Your Industry & Your Competition
First, consider your industry and research your likely costs with Google’s Keyword Planner or even Facebook audience insights. There are certain industries or sub-industries that are crazy-expensive from a cost per click perspective and ad budget.
Your Objective
Once you’ve determined what your organization can afford and you’ve considered the industry and the competition, you then should consider what you’re hoping to achieve from this marketing strategy.
If your goal is increasing brand awareness or demand generation, Facebook ads may be more economical for you.
However, if you’re looking to generate sales or leads (i.e., demand capture), then Google Ads might be a better choice for your business.
In that scenario, a user is searching for what your organization is selling. Therefore, you will be targeting people with a generally much higher intent to purchase.
But you’ll need to once again consider your overall Google and Facebook ad spending. In many cases, I’ve seen lower cost per conversion (i.e., cost per lead) from Facebook Ads.
Demography.
This leads to the next scenario: if the purchase of your product or service strongly correlates based on specific life events, audiences based, then Facebook is most likely your better option.
Facebook has powerful targeting capabilities such as being able to target based on life-changing events.